Admissions 2023 - 2024

The admissions process for Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School is part of the Birmingham Local Authority co-ordinated admissions scheme. 

To apply for a place at Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School in the normal admissions round, an application must be made using the school admission application process of the local authority in which you live, naming Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School on the application form. 

Applications need to be made by 15^th January 2023. Please click here for information about appeals.

A Supplementary Information Form (SIF) must also be completed and returned directly to the school by the same date (see Note 2).

 

All applications which are submitted on time will be considered at the same time, after the closing date.

 

You will be advised of the outcome of your application on 16^th April 2023, or the next working day, by the local authority on behalf of the school.

 

Please note that throughout this policy, the term parent means all natural parents, any person who is not a parent but has parental responsibility for a child and any person who has care of a child.

 

The ethos of this school is Catholic.  The school was founded by the Catholic Church to provide education for children of Catholic families.  Whenever there are more applications than places available, priority will be given to Catholic children in accordance with the oversubscription criteria listed below.  The school is conducted by its governing body as part of the Catholic Church in accordance with its Trust Deed and Instrument of Government and seeks at all times to be a witness to Our Lord Jesus Christ. 

 

As a Catholic school, we aim to provide a Catholic education for all our pupils.  At a Catholic school, Catholic doctrine and practice permeate every aspect of the school’s activity.  It is essential that the Catholic character of the school’s education be fully supported by all families in the school.  We therefore hope that all parents will give their full, unreserved and positive support for the aims and ethos of the school.  This does not affect the right of an applicant who is not Catholic to apply for and be admitted to a place at the school in accordance with the admission arrangements.

 

The governing body is the admissions authority and has responsibility for admissions to this school.  The governing body has set its admission number at 60 pupils to be admitted to the Reception class in the school year which begins in September 2024. (See Note 1 below)

 

Where there are more applications for places than the number of places available, places will be offered according to the following order of priority.  If there is oversubscription within a category, the Governing Body will give priority to children living closest to the school determined by the shortest distance (see Note 5).

 

For the purposes of this policy, parish boundaries are as shown on the Archdiocese of Birmingham parish boundary map which can be accessed at https://www.birminghamdiocese.org.uk/boundary-map and will be applied to the admission arrangements for the academic year 2023/2024. Our parish boundary map is attached to this admissions policy.

 

Oversubscription Criteria

1. Baptised Catholic children (see Note 2 below) who are looked after or previously looked after (See Note 3 below).
2. Baptised Catholic children (see Note 2 below) living in the parish of Corpus Christi who have a brother or sister (see Note 4 below) attending Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School at the time of admission.
3. Baptised Catholic children (see Note 2 below) living in the parish of Corpus Christi.
4. Other Baptised Catholic children (see Note 2 below) who have a brother or sister (see Note 4 below) attending Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School at the time of admission.
5. Other Baptised Catholic children (see note 2 below).
6. Non-Catholic children who are looked after or previously looked after (See Note 3 below).
7. Non-Catholic children who have a brother or sister (see Note 4 below) attending Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School at the time of admission.
8. Non-Catholic children.

 

Note 1

Children with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan that names the school MUST be admitted.  This will reduce the number of places available to applicants.  This is not an oversubscription criteria.

 

Note 2

In all categories, for a child to be considered as Catholic, evidence of Catholic Baptism or Reception into the Church will be required.  For a definition of a Baptised Catholic, see the Appendix.  Those who face difficulties in producing written evidence of Catholic Baptism or Reception into the Church should contact their Parish Priest.

Parents making an application for a Catholic child should also complete a Supplementary Information Form (SIF) which should be returned directly to the school.  If you do not provide the information required in the Supplementary Information Form and return it by the closing date, together with all supporting documentation, this is likely to affect the criteria that your child is placed into, which is likely to affect your child’s chance of being offered a place at this school.

For the purposes of this policy, a looked after child living with a family where at least one of the carers is Catholic will be considered as Catholic.  The carer must forward a copy of their own Catholic Baptismal or Reception certificate directly to the school in order for this priority to be given to the child as failure to do so will result in the looked after child being ranked as a non-Catholic.

 

Note 3

A “looked after child” has the same meaning as in section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989, and means any child who is (a) in the care of the local authority or (b) being provided with accommodation by them in the exercise of their social services functions (eg children with foster parents) at the time of making the application to the school.  A “previously looked after child” is a child was looked after, but ceased to be so because he or she was adopted or became subject to a child arrangements order or special guardianship order and includes those children who appear (to the governing body) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state case as a result of being adopted.

For the purposes of this policy, a looked after child living with a family where at least one of the carers is Catholic will be considered as Catholic.  The carer must forward a copy of their own Catholic Baptismal or Reception certificate directly to the school in order for this priority to be given to the child as failure to do so will result in the looked after child being ranked as a non-Catholic.

 

Note 4

For all applicants the definition of a brother or sister is:

• A brother or sister sharing the same parents
• A half-brother or half-sister, where two children share one common parent
• A step-brother or step-sister, where two children are related by a parents’ marriage or civil partnership, or where they are unrelated but their parents are living as partners.
• Adopted or fostered children

 

Note 5

Distances are calculated on the basis of a straight-line measurement between the child’s home address and the front gate of the school on Lyttelton Rd.  The Local Authority uses a computerised system, which measures all distances in metres.  Ordnance Survey supplies the co-ordinates that are used to plot a child’s home address and the address of the school.

 

In a very small number of cases, where the school is oversubscribed, it may not be possible to decide between the applications of those pupils who are the final qualifiers for a place when applying the published admission criteria.

For example, this may occur when children in the same year group live at the same address, or if the distance between the home and the school is exactly the same, for example, blocks of flats.  If there is no other way of separating the application according to the admissions criteria and to admit both, or all, of the children would cause the Published Admission Number for the child’s year group to be exceeded, the Local Authority, on behalf of the Governing Body, will use a computerised system to randomly select the child to be offered the final place.

 

The governing body will, where possible, admit twins and all siblings from multiple births where one of the children is the last child ranked within the school’s published admission number.

A child’s home address refers to the address where the child usually lives with a parent or carer and will be the address provided in the Local Authority’s Common Application Form. 

Where parents have shared responsibility for a child, and the child lives for part of the week with each parent, the home address will be the address provided in the Local Authority’s Common Application Form, provided that the child resides at that address for any part of the school week. 

Parents may be requested to supply documentary evidence to satisfy the Governing Body that the child lives at the address put forward by the parents.

 

If a place in the school is offered on the basis of an address that is subsequently found to be different from a child’s normal and permanent home address, then that place is liable to be withdrawn.

 

SCHOOL ENTRY

Parents must, by law, ensure that their child is receiving suitable full time education from the beginning of the term following the child’s fifth birthday, when they will have begun to be of compulsory school age.

 

Where a place is offered in the school, the pupil will be entitled to take up that place, on a full-time basis in the September following their fourth birthday.

 

A child’s parents may defer the date at which their child, below compulsory school age, is admitted to the school, until later in the school year but not beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age and not beyond the first day of the summer term 2025.

A child may take up a part-time place until later in the school year, but not beyond the point at which the child reached compulsory school age. 

Upon receipt of the offer of a place a parent should notify the school, as soon as possible, that they wish to either defer their child’s entry to the school or take up a part-time place.

 

The parent of a child whose fifth birthday falls during the summer term who wishes to defer their child’s admission until the beginning of the following academic year (when the child will have begun to be of compulsory school age) will therefore need to make a separate in-year application for a place in Year 1 at the school.  Any reception class place offered following an application made for the 2024/2025 admission round will be withdrawn if the child does not take up that place by the first day of the summer term 2025.

 

APPLICATIONS FOR CHILDREN TO BE ADMITTED INTO A CLASS OUTSIDE OF THEIR NORMAL AGE GROUP

Parents have the right to request, but not insist, that their child be considered for admission to a class outside of their normal age group.  This could be the case, for example, if a child is gifted and talented, has experienced problems such as ill health, or that the child is summer born, ie a child born between 1^st April and 31^st August.  Parents who wish for their child to be considered for admission to a class outside of their normal age group must make an application for the normal age group in the first instance.  Parents must then submit a formal request to the Governing Body for the child to be considered for a different age group class instead.  This request should be in the form of a written letter of application outlining the reasons why they wish for their child to be considered to be admitted into a class outside of their normal age group and enclosing any supportive evidence and documentation that they wish to be taken into account as part of that request.

 

The Governing Body will consider requests submitted for a child to be admitted into a class outside of their normal age group and advise parents of the outcome of that request before national offer day, having taken into account the information provided by the parents, the child’s best interests and the views of the Head Teacher.

 

If the request is refused, the original application for the normal age group class will progress through the Local Authority co-ordinated admissions scheme, be considered by the Governing Body and the parents advised of the outcome.

 

If the request is agreed and the year group for which the parents have requested a place is a current year group in the school, then the application will be considered by the Governing Body and the parents advised of the outcome.

 

If the request is agreed and the year group for which the parents have requested a place is for a future year group, ie Reception in September 2024, then the original application is withdrawn and the parents must submit a fresh application for Reception 2024 when applications open in the autumn term of 2023.  Please note that parents only have the right to re-apply for a place.  Where the Governing Body agrees to consider an application for Reception the following year, that application is considered alongside all other applications received and parents will be advised of the outcome of that application on national offer day.  No place is reserved or held for the child in advance.

 

If parents are considering submitting an application for their child to be admitted into a class outside of their normal age group, it is strongly recommended that they also read the DFE guidance which can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/summer-born-children-school-admission

APPEALS

Parents who wish to appeal against the decision of the Governing Body to refuse their child a place in the school should make that appeal request in writing to the Chair of Governors at the school address.  Appeals will be heard by an independent panel.

 

Please note that parents do not have the right to appeal if their request for their children to be admitted to a class outside of their normal year group has been refused, but the Governing Body have offered a place in the normal age group instead.

SCHOOL ADMISSION APPEAL TIMETABLE 2024

Appeals for normal round of admissions
Date of allocation of places	16 April 2024
Deadline for lodging appeals and providing evidence to support the appeal (if appropriate)	17 May 2024
Appeals will be heard by	5 July 2024
Notice of appeal hearing	At least 14 school days before the appeal hearing date
Deadline for governing body to submit evidence for the appeal	At least 10 school days before the appeal hearing date
Deadline for sending appeal papers to all parties	No later than 10 school days before the appeal hearing
Deadline for appellant to submit additional evidence	At least 10 school days before the appeal hearing. Information or evidence not submitted by the deadline might not be considered at the appeal
Late applications for appeals will be heard by	At the same time as previously scheduled appeals if possible or within 30 school days this if not possible.
Decision letters sent to appellant	Normally within five school days

Appeals for in-year admissions
Deadline for lodging appeals and providing evidence to support the appeal (if appropriate)	At least 28 school days from the date of notification that the application was unsuccessful
Appeals will be heard	Within 30 school days of the appeal being lodged
Notice of appeal hearing	At least 14 school days notice
Deadline for governing body to submit evidence for the appeal	At least 10 school days before the appeal hearing
Deadline for sending appeal papers to all parties	No later than 10 school days before the appeal hearing
Deadline for appellant to submit additional evidence	At least 10 school days before the appeal hearing. Information or evidence not submitted by the deadline might not be considered at the appeal
Late applications for appeals will be heard	At the same time as previously scheduled appeals if possible or within 30 school days if not.
Decision letters sent to appellant	Normally within five school days

REPEAT APPLICATIONS

Any parent can apply for a place for their child at any time outside of the normal admissions round.  Parents do not have the right to a second appeal in respect of the same school for the same academic year unless, in exceptional circumstances, the Governing Body has accepted a second application from the parent because of a significant and material change in the circumstances of the parent, child or school, but have still refused admission.

 

LATE APPLICATIONS

Late applications will be dealt with in accordance with the Local Authority’s co-ordinated admissions scheme.  This states that in exceptional circumstances applications submitted to Birmingham local authority after the final closing date, but before the date that Birmingham local authority forwards the applications to the appropriate admission authority for consideration, may be considered at the same time as those which were received by the final closing date.  Discretion will be used when considering the individual circumstances.  For example where:

• There were exceptional reasons which prevented the parent from applying by the closing date.
• A child and the parent have moved home.
• Where the parent has been contacted regarding the information contained within their application, for example, an incomplete application or potentially misleading information requiring further investigation.

All late applications received after the date that Birmingham local authority forwards the applications to the appropriate admission authority for consideration, but before the offer of places, will only be considered after those applications which were received on time have been considered.  Such applications may therefore be less likely to be offered a place.  All late applications received after the offer of places will be considered.  In the event that Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School is undersubscribed, a place will be offered.  Applications made on or after the start of the Autumn Term 2023 will need to be submitted directly to the school and will be treated as an in-year application.

You are encouraged to ensure that your application is received on time.

 

CHANGE IN PREFERENCE

Parents can submit changes of preferences from 1^st October 2022 up until the closing date 15^th January 2023 and the family’s latest change in preferences up until the closing date will be the application that is processed. Any late changes of preferences received after 15^th January 2023 no matter the family’s circumstances, will not be processed until after the offer of places on 16^th April 2023 (or next working day). Parents in Birmingham are restricted to a maximum of three live preferences at a time, it is therefore important that parents visit www.birmingham.gov.uk/schooladmissions for further information of the implications of making late changes of preferences.

 

WAITING LIST

In addition to their right to appeal, children who have not been offered a place at Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School but were offered a school that was ranked as a lower preference on their application form will be added to a waiting list. 

The waiting list will be maintained until the last day of the summer term 2023 and will then be discarded. 

A child’s position on a waiting list is not fixed.  When a new child joins the waiting list, all applicants on that waiting list will be re-ranked to ensure that the list is always maintained in oversubscription criteria order.  This means that a child’s position on the waiting list could go up or down during the time that it is on the list.  Any late applications accepted will be added to the waiting list in accordance with the oversubscription criteria.

Inclusion on the waiting list does not mean that a place will eventually become available. 

Children who are the subject of a direction by the Local Authority to admit or who are allocated to a school in accordance with the Fair Access Protocol take precedence over those on a waiting list.

 

IN YEAR FAIR ACCESS PROTOCOL

The Governing Body of Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School is committed to taking its fair share of children who are vulnerable and/or hard to place, as set out in locally agreed protocols.  Accordingly, outside the normal admission round the governing body is empowered to give absolute priority to a child where admission is requested under any locally agreed protocol.  The Governing Body has this power, even when admitting the child would mean exceeding the published admission number (subject to the infant class size exceptions).

 

APPLICATIONS OTHER THAN THE NORMAL INTAKE TO RECEPTION CLASS (IN-YEAR ADMISSIONS)

In-Year Applications

An application can be made for a place for a child at any time outside the admission round and the child will be admitted where there are available places.  An application should be made to the school by completing the in-year admissions application form which is available from HERE  As a Catholic School, parents will also need to complete a Supplementary Information Form in addition to the standard application form that is submitted to the school.  Supplementary Information Forms can be obtained from the school’s website HERE or a hard copy can be provided on request by contacting the school office on 0121 675 2784 or email our admissions officer Mrs Julie Martin on j.martin@corpuschristi.bham.sch.uk   Supplementary Information Forms must be returned directly to the school at Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School Lyttelton Road Stechford Birmingham B33 8BL  If a Supplementary Information Form is not submitted directly to the school this may affect the priority given to the application and could affect the likelihood of your child being offered a place.

Where there are places available but more applications than places, the published oversubscription criteria, as set out in the admission arrangements for 2023 / 2024 will be applied. The full admission arrangements can be accessed HERE or by contacting the school office to request a hard copy.  Parents are advised to read the admission arrangements carefully before making their application.

If there are no places available, the child will be added to the waiting list and further information relating to this will be included in the letter sent from the school advising you of the outcome of your application.  Please see the admission arrangements for more details.

You will be advised of the outcome of your application in writing as soon as possible.  Applicants must be informed of the outcome of their application within 15 school days of its receipt, but the aim is to notify applicants of the outcome of their application within 10 school days of its receipt.

You have the right to appeal to an independent appeal panel if your application is unsuccessful.

If you have any questions in relation to in-year admissions please contact Mrs Julie Martin using the above contact details. You may also wish to discuss in-year applications with the local authority HERE or telephone them on 0121 303 1888

APPENDIX

DEFINITION OF A “BAPTISED CATHOLIC”

A “Baptised Catholic” is one who:

• Has been baptised into full communion (Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 837) with the Catholic Church by the Rites of Baptism of one of the various ritual Churches in communion with the See of Rome. Written evidence of this baptism can be obtained by recourse to the Baptismal Registers of the church in which the baptism took place (Cf. Code of Canon Law, 877 & 878).

Or

• Has been validly baptised in a separated ecclesial community and subsequently received into full communion with the Catholic Church by the Rite of Reception of Baptised Christians into the Full Communion of the Catholic Church. Written evidence of their baptism and reception into full communion with the Catholic Church can be obtained by recourse to the Register of Receptions, or in some cases, a sub-section of the Baptismal Registers of the church in which the Rite of Reception took place (Cf. Rite of Christian Initiation, 399).

 

WRITTEN EVIDENCE OF BAPTISM

The Governing bodies of Catholic schools and Boards of Directors of Catholic Academies will require written evidence in the form of a Certificate of Baptism or Certificate of Reception before applications for school places can be considered for categories of “Baptised Catholics”. A Certificate of Baptism or Reception is to include: the full name, date of birth, date of Baptism or Reception, and parent(s) name(s). The certificate must also show that it is copied from the records kept by the place of Baptism or Reception.

Those who would have difficulty obtaining written evidence of Catholic Baptism/Reception for a good reason, may still be considered as Baptised Catholics but only after they have been referred to their parish priest who, after consulting the Vicar General, will decide how the question of Baptism/Reception is to be resolved and how written evidence is to be produced in accordance with the law of the Church.

Those who would be considered to have good reason for not obtaining written evidence would include those who cannot contact the place of Baptism/Reception due to persecution or fear, the destruction of the church and the original records, or where Baptism/Reception was administered validly but not in the Parish church where records are kept.

Governors and Boards of Directors may request extra supporting evidence when the written documents that are produced do not clarify the fact that a person was baptised or received into the Catholic Church, (i.e. where the name and address of the Church is not on the certificate or where the name of the Church does not state whether it is a Catholic Church or not.)

For the purposes of this policy, a looked after child (see Note 3) living with a family where at least one of the parents/carers is Catholic will be considered as Catholic.

Supplementary Information Form